Trial of the Spheres, A Couple of Notes

I've been doing very well soloing Trial of the Spheres with a DOT (damage over time) deck. I've equipped some of my damage over time spells in it: Power Link, Scald, and Fire Dragon. Besides my wand attacks and Sir Lamorak casts, that's it. All dot spells. I also threw in a couple of Pixies and I'm dominating the dungeon. It doesn't hurt that I'm carrying my fire resist armor either. Lots of stellar protectors, and Astraeus likes to cast Meteor Strikes and Spectral Blasts (sometimes Fire). I haven't used a potion yet, and I'm at Mithraya.

I think I've fine-tuned my understanding of the cheats for the first two bosses Astraeus and Ptolemos.

Astraeus
- While any of his minions are up, he will shield after every damaging attack or dot on him. The dots will not clear his shields as long as there is still a minion alive on his part of the turn.
- With his minions dead, as long as you do damage to him in a turn (including any dots on him), he will not start casting his cheat shield.
- Starting the turn after all his minions are dead, your side has three turns to hit him without his special shield coming up. On the fourth turn, he recasts the shield on his turn.
- When he recasts the shield, he will also summon his minions but they will not enter until the next round. You can remove his shield with damage or the ward steal spell on the turn he brings it into play. There is some variance with this, depending if he goes first or not. Maybe.
- The most effective strategy I've come up with is to have Colossal Fire Dragons and a couple blades. Throw in a Wyldfire, your favorite aura spells, and at least one Reshuffle. Blade up until he casts the shield. Pop the shield with a wand shot. When his summons are active, hit with the Fire Dragons. You effectively clear the minions and do a good hit to him at the same time, clearing off his subsequent shields. If you have a summon, like Sir Lamorak, he can help you to get rid of extra shields after the hits. You can also substitute in Meteor Strikes for quicker hits and worry less about clearing the shields. The downside is that he will sometimes hit Astraeus at the wrong time (like with a heck hound dot) and prompt the special shield while the minions are up.

Ptolemos
- Certain global spells (maybe all?) trigger his shield anti-cheat (he removes all wards on him when players cast a charm). That means Wyldfire counts for shield removal.
- He will not trigger the shield cheat unless you attack him while you have no charm on you. The global spell will NOT count as having a charm on you. It only removes his shield once it's on there.

Mithraya
- She may still cast a smokescreen on you on the turn you break her cheat sequence (getting a trap on her and blading yourself), but she won't after that as long as one blade remains on a player and a trap on her.
- I probably already said it, but the balance spells spirit blade, spirit trap, elemental blade, and elemental trap are very useful here, since some of them will never be used up if you're soloing.
- A trap on her minion does not count towards the cheat breaking! Only on her.